The DEM Dilemma

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Group Resume: The DEM Dilemma



Outline of who we are:

Name
 Personal Intersts
 Talents/Education
Samar Ahmed Qureshi – 3rd year student doing a double major in Political Science and CCIT.
 Born in Montreal, I am a diehard Habs fan. I love watching the Canadians play in French and/or in English. I enjoy developing websites, hanging out with friends, and watching movies shortly after they are released in theatres. Overall I would say I am an easy going individual who works well with others and never takes anything personally (almost never). I am fairly athletic and competitive although I may not look it. I play baseball, football, basketball, floor hockey, and anything else that requires me kicking someone else's butt.

Yes, I am talented and educated
Asad Iqbal – 4th year student doing a double major in Economics and CCIT.
 I enjoy listening to and am an amateur music produce, my influences are Kanye West, Timbaland, NERD, Ryan Leslie and Michael Jackson. I am also an avid automobile connoisseur – I enjoy automobile tuning, fixing, modifying. If I were to own any car right now it would have to be the 2009 GTR Skyline as I am a huge Nissan fan and own a 1996 Nissan Maxima SE myself.
 I have completed my degree requirements for economics and therefore am well versed in it. I have touched base on a wide variety of economic concepts ranging from macroeconomics, microeconomics, law and economics and my personal favourite finance. CCIT has taught me a lot in terms of information technology and communication.
Ahmed Waqar – 4thyear Digital Enterprise Management student
 I enjoy golf, basketball, volleyball and squash with the occasional bowling. I love cartoons (I still get up on Saturday mornings sometimes) and a lot of the 90’s rap music (true rap). I love taking risks and as such I love to go hiking, climbing, camping and various other outdoor activities.
 Aside from my DEM degree, I am planning on obtaining my PMP Certificate and my MBA in the near future. I have my own company, where I learned various aspects of a company from Sales and Marketing to Finance and Employee Management. I am taking 7 courses and still going strong so I assume my organizational skills are above par.

Division of Labour:


Ahmed Waqar – Wiki and survey coordinator
Asad Iqbal – online research
Samar Ahmed – online research with a focus on other programs


Communication Strategy:


What are we trying to achieve with this?

  • The overall objective of this study is to determine current strengths and key flaws of the CCIT program with a special focus on the Digital Enterprise Management Specialist program. Right now, there is a lot of confusion on what this whole program is about in the minds of many students. This has caused various key players (mentioned later) to point fingers at other people. By understanding what makes this program special and strong, we hope to determine ways of resolving some of the key issues using the strengths of the program.

What is our message?

  • It would also be teaching students how to market themselves in the workforce and how they can use tools learned in CCIT and apply them to the real world.

What is our target audience?

  • It is too common to see one party blame another for a problem. We are targeting students, faculty (teachers) and CCIT program head, Prof. Wensley. These entities are the ones that can bring about change to the program and see it grow into an internationally recognized program.
  • Furthermore, with an ailing economy graduating students need this program to be successful else, they would have wasted the last 4-5 years. If this program fails, the degree for what it’s worth becomes worthless (to some extent).

What media is the best way to reach them?

  • Social media would be the best for students as students of the CCIT program are very tech savvy. Websites, blogs, twitter, virtually any online media would get our message across to students. All these online tools can be used to gather public opinion on the program. Online communities are a great way to get our message across and get quick feedback in the short period of time available.

What messages I am putting out?

  • “That graduates of the CCIT and DEM program are well equipped with the latest knowledge and skills in the information and management realm and can handle the current technological workplace”. By finding issues and strengths of the program and then helping resolve those issues, we hope that employers see our drive to make this program successful. The fact that we can even address some of the issues, we hope, shows employers the level of knowledge this program has bestowed upon us.

What change am I trying to bring out?

  • A more focused and defined scope of the CCIT program. A well balanced mixture of information technology, management and communication tools that are currently in demand in the work sphere.



Marketing:

Objective

  • Resolve key issues such as program branding, course quality/selection and interest in enrolled students.

Goals

  • We hope that this program grows and becomes as recognized as another graduate with a BCom or BBA.

Audience

  • This is intended for anyone who has any vested interest into the success of this program. Key players were listed earlier.

Key Message

  1. The programs successes effects students, alumni, faculty and anyone else linked to the program.
  2. The problems can be resolved with effort from all key players.
  3. All problems are different and will yield results at different rates. Students in 1st year might see the results 4 years when they graduate.
  4. A negative attitude will only breed more negativity and the battle to strengthen this program will never be won. Everyone must stay positive through the good and bad times.

Strategy

  • We are going to target each of the key issues and see what the key players can do to resolve the issues individually. We can than see what issues have more than one key player that can contribute to fixing that problem

Tactics

  • We will target each of the key players with specific surveys to be filled out. For students it will be an online survey, while the rest will get paper copies. The surveys will provide us with what people find to be the current issues. A second survey will be given with the specific goal of determining all the strengths of the program. The two surveys combined will help us formulate some solutions to problems.

Measurement

  • As mentioned earlier depending on the issue, each solution will have its own timeline. Some solutions regarding program branding should see results within 2 years. A smaller issue such as course options should see results within 1-2 semesters.